To hate the vacuousness of some young girls nowadays?

Why is it ridiculous to do your hair and wear short skirts for school, I’m 50 and I know for a fact I did both those things at secondary school as did most girls - we also read smash hits and just 17! which I would suggest is the equivalent to todays social media.

My 17yo DD does/ did all the ‘vacuous’ things you have suggested- she also works part time, plays county level sport, is doing alevels and has unconditional offers to 3 universities.

So adults created a hyper-commercialist world full of influencers and instagram videos about how to be a vanilla girl or a tomato girl or a coastal Grandma or whatever perfect-skinned, beige living-roomed, clean-eating goddess we're supposed to be this week, and we're going to blame the 12 year olds for falling for it?

And simultaneously pretend like when we were 12 we weren't also begging our parents for whatever we thought would make us one of the cool girls, except we weren't dealing with pretty much 24/7 advertising from the devices they get handed the moment they can recognise and click on the YouTube button?

Seconded.

Actually what worries me more than young girls being vacuous is seeing adult women being obsessed with self-image and how they look. And not just women! The whole Western world seems to have been sucked into a dysmorphic nightmare (including the gender fluidity that is so fashionable now). No prizes for guessing how/why (it shifts useless products off the shelves), but it's a terrifying trend and I can't see it loosening its grip any time soon.

It’s concerning that many of the skincare brands being used by young girls are not suitable for their skin. Parents really do need to conduct their own research and push back where necessary. The skin barrier is easily damaged and the consequences are pretty awful

I'm glad I'm not young anymore.
Full stop.

Not RTFT because I can't be arsed to see the to and fro but I remember walking past a car pulling out of a supermarket a few years back and seeing a teen girl take a selfie in the back while dad drove in the front. I just thought, no way would my Dad/stepmum/extended family have let that pass. I'd have been hammered for it, what are you playing at, give over and get a grip etc. I also remember the first time I saw a young someone take a selfie unabashedly, not for any tourist reason or with anyone else and thinking how embarrassing... Kids are kids. Playing with makeup is fine, it's literally that. The online-ness of it all means it's a totally different ball game now. The problem is nobody is stepping in to talk about how weird it is because it's their normal. I just listened to a podcast about extremely powerful face recognition software and I'm about to send it to my family chat so my parents can understand why my SIL doesn't want her toddler on social media.

Quite! My son is far more obsessed with brands than my daughter, as boys are buying into this TikTok bullshit that it's 'high status male' stuff.

My daughter loves makeup for the sake of makeup and isn't fussed whether it's Superdrug own brand or Lancome.

To be fair, every generation's parents criticised their dress sense, makeup, etc. If your mum didn't you were doing your teens all wrong!

Back in the 80s we were all Jackie magazine clones instead.

It is just more intense, extreme and more pressure on them because of the influence of social media.

The only thing that's different is that girls now see influencers on TikTok instead of reading about the latest trends in Just 17 or 19.

My daughter is almost exactly the same as I was at her age (13) as she's massively into 90s grunge and loves her thick black eyeliner. So I'd say she's probably quite influenced by me, too!

This is a well judgy thread.

My 12 year olds put on lashes and nails to go to the stable and literally shovel shit.

It's not new though, TikTok and high end brands are though. I'm from the Mizz / Just 17 generation, that was our version of TikTok position of the month?!

It's fine for 12 year old to be immature and obsessed with 'vacuous' things because they're 12!
Tweets following the latest trends isn't new and it's very unpleasant to see all the adults on this thread sneering at them.
Poor girls. Hating the judgement I'm seeing here. They're still children.

I was pretty vacuous at that age, too. In fact I probably still am!

At age 13 (this was the 70s), I was reading James Bond books from my brother's bookshelf and making lists of all the things I'd have to do before I qualified to have sex one day. It was based on the Bond girls, so I listed things like rubbing coconut oil in my hair, using fake tan, etc. I also worried about the advice in girls' magazines, which went on about softening the skin on your elbows using lemon juice, using honey as a face mask, and other such nonsense, which now seems almost Edwardian in its quaintness.

Not sure anyone has changed much, more that marketing (esp via social media) has well and truly got its claws into everyone - and from a young age. Plus, I can't imagine the impact of online porn on what girls must think is expected of them soon.

Plus, the cosmetics counter at Boots used to be a few small display cabinets, not the entire fucking ground floor 🙄

My 12 year old dd was very into all those things…now at 19 she makes a very nice little side income on social media doing make up videos that pays her way through med school.

So boys aren’t obsessed with brands then? As every teenage lad I know it’s nike or nothing including my own.

It’s the journey that they go on we were all the same as kids. Until you leave school get a job and realise that brands are expensive so you either downgrade or you Work hard to be able to still afford them. There’s always someone being down on the teens why not do better and see the best in them?

I think all the teen stuff has been forever thus. I find the micro shorts, crop tops and princess tags for the very young horrible.

There is probably another good thread to be started about advertising to kids, but the OP went with misogyny instead.

Were you ever young? @CarryOnCharon

I am a woman and remember being really into Fame when I was about six, so this was early 1980s- pink leg warmers, rara skirts, and headbands etc. Just lots of pink/pastel colours/ fluorescent colours generally. And I refused to wear trousers until I was eleven or twelve- the more twirly or frilly the skirt the better. When I was 9 my friend dressed me up and did my make up like Madonna (in the Desperately Seeking Susan phase). I remember it clearly because my mum went mad about it.

When I was eleven, so Y6 at school I got really into make up and would spend pocket money on Rimmel from the chemist.

All this while still being into "boy's stuff" like cars, trains and football. I played football and cricket on the street with the boys, wearing a skirt and trainers.

I went on to be a lawyer in a male dominated field. Vacuous smacuous.

Centuries ago when I was young I used to roll my school up at the waistband so that you could almost see my knickers, I was obsessed with make up and because I was a Saturday girl at Boots I often got samples as well as often wasting my wages on the stuff as I had great staff discount. I wasn't 12 of course but I was young which is essentially what that was all about. I was also reading voraciously and studying for my exams so I wasn't totally superfical. There have always been vacuous materialistic people, I think the big difference now is of course social media which means the messages, the ads and all the pressure is much faster and far more intense.

This 100%.

I used expensive cleansers and makeup as a teen as I had bad skin and cheap stuff irritated it so my mum bought me Estée Lauder etc. So not always vacuousness

What a nasty misogynist thread.

@CarryOnCharon you must be so proud of yourself

Heather Shimmer! Now that brings back memories 😁

o ffs

The pressures have always been there, but certainly not 24/7! What is insiduous is the huge industry that is funding social media posts and pushing products, of all types. A friend's daughter is employed to simply push client's films, cosmetics, clothing, toys, you name it, and encourage / contract with so called influencers to use, wear, endorse items that they are only seen with using because they are paid to and the sums of money involved are enormous! Her youngest influencer, obviously via parents, is 2 years of age! Yes, we followed pop groups, wore certain styles of shoes, hitched up skirts, used make up that was affordable, but certainly not into cosmetic products and skin care regimes, with chemicals that are far too harsh for young skins, or costing what they do now. It is not just young girls, they are targetting us all and for what, to sell what we rarely need and items that really do not make us happier, just those selling them to us richer!

To hate the vacuousness of some young girls

Why so emotive? Hate is a strong word. Dramatic much?😂

I'd like to know what OP's problem with young girls really is and why.